Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today called upon ‘parties’ to endorse Nagoya Protocol thereby helping achieve concerted global action in tackling biodiversity issues.
“I am glad that negotiations regarding biodiversity have achieved remarkable progress. India has recently ratified the Nagoya Protocol and formalised our commitment to it,” he said.
Addressing the High Level Meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP) 11 at the Convention on Biological Diversity here, the Prime Minister said, “Despite global efforts, the 2010 biodiversity target that we had set for ourselves was not fully met. This situation needs to change.”
He announced that the Government has decided to earmark $50 million during India’s presidency of CoP to strengthen the institutional mechanism for biodiversity conservation in India. The Government has also set apart funds to promote similar capacity building in developing countries.
The critical issue really is how to mobilise the necessary financial, technical and human resources, particularly the incubation, sharing and transfer of technology, he said.
Referring to the digital Library and database created on traditional knowledge with 34 million pages, he said that the library promotes the objectives of Nagoya Protocol. It has also codified traditional knowledge systems such as Ayurveda. Multilateral agencies have approached us for assistance in setting up such libraries, he said.
Union Environment Minister Jayanti Natarajan called for consensus on revenue mobilisation. She expressed that even an interim understanding in revenue mobilisation would augur well in achieving targets.